The idea I believe, is not to kiwi them at all, especially if
the boots are tan or green! Haven't heard of green kiwi, lol...
But in any case, you can always have a second black pair for
parade and drill... after all in the old days (as in my time cira
2004-2006) we were issued gortex combat boots for outfield and
leather ones for drill and parade. Then apparently the SAF decided
to cut costs and issued leather ones across the board for the
recruits, only allowing them to switch if they went to combat
vocations of something like that.
You know thats hardly gonna happen! It's not like we are going
to do much desert ops (those who do deploy to deserts can surely
afford to buy boots from any nearby US base PX). I still don't see
any problem with black boots. The black rifle is a much bigger and
much more noticeable target!
The good thing about having only ONE colour of boots is like the
good thing about having ONE colour of uniform-- life gets so much
simpler. We are running an army here, not a fashion show. Unless we
anticipate having our Infantry do ambush ops in urban areas, there
really is no need for a digi-grey no. 4 or other coloured boots-- a
moving human target in an urban area will stand out no matter
what.
Heh I enlisted in 2006 and I don't consider it the old days :P.
In fact the BMT batch before me got two pairs of goretex instead of
one of each. But the goretex boots don't really offer much
advantage over the leather boots in terms of drying faster or
anything-- the only difference is that if you leave your wet
leather boots to dry by themselves they become rock hard and can
cut your ankles.
I believe they looked into issuing jungle boots, but for some
reason it went nowhere. Anybody interested is still stuck with
either ordering from the US or getting it from Sheares at almost
200 bucks a pop :P Or maybe boot exchanges with the Bruneians.
